IP Library Granted Patent US 9,445,419
Granted Patent B2
US 9,445,419 · App. 14/444,818 · Granted Sep 13, 2016

Dual network mobile device radio resource management

Inventors: Wen Zhao (San Jose, CA); Syed A. Mujtaba (Santa Clara, CA); Xiaowen Wang (Cupertino, CA); Vinay R. Majjigi (Sunnyvale, CA); Isabel G. Mahe (Los Altos, CA)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
H04W72/048H04L5/0092H04W68/12H04W72/00H04W88/06H04W72/04
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,445,419
App. No.
14/444,818
Granted
Sep 13, 2016
Kind
B2
Abstract

A single chip mobile wireless device capable of receiving and transmitting over one wireless network at a time maintains registration on two wireless communication networks that each use different communication protocols in parallel. Periodically, the mobile wireless device tunes one or more receivers from a first wireless network to a second wireless network in order to listen for paging messages addressed to the mobile wireless device from the second wireless network. The first wireless network suspends allocation of radio resources to the mobile wireless device based on receipt of a suspension message from the mobile wireless device, or based on knowledge of a paging cycle for mobile wireless device in the second wireless network, or based on detection of an out of synchronization condition with the mobile wireless device.

Claims (62)

1. A method to manage connections between a mobile device and a plurality of wireless networks, the method comprising:

by the mobile device:

establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a first wireless network;

registering the mobile device with a second wireless network;

sending to the first wireless network a radio resource suspension trigger that provides an indication to the first wireless network to suspend allocation of radio resources to the mobile device;

tuning one or more receivers of the mobile device to listen for a page addressed to the mobile device from the second network during a suspension time period; and

when not receiving a page addressed to the mobile device during the suspension time period and the suspension time period does not exceed a time interval that results in the first wireless network dropping the RRC connection:

tuning the one or more receivers of the mobile device back to the first wireless network, and

sending a signaling message to the first wireless network through the RRC connection, the signaling message providing an indication to the first wireless network that the mobile device is ready to resume data communication with the first wireless network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio resource suspension trigger comprises a predefined combination of values for one or more of: a channel quality indicator, a precoding matrix indicator, or a rank indicator.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio resource suspension trigger does not comprise an extended service request (ESR) message that requests release of the RRC connection.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

by the mobile device:

when receiving a page addressed to the mobile device during the suspension time period:

sending an extended service request (ESR) message to the first wireless network requesting release of the RRC connection; and

sending a page response message to the second wireless network.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

establishing a mobile terminated connection with the second wireless network to support a voice call; and

after the voice call completes:

tuning the one or more receivers back to the first wireless network; and

re-establishing another RRC connection with the first wireless network.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the mobile device sends the ESR message to the first wireless network before sending the page response message to the second wireless network.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the mobile device sends the page response message to the second wireless network before sending the ESR message to the first wireless network.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

by the mobile device:

sending the ESR message to the first wireless network after receiving an extended channel assignment from the second wireless network and before a traffic exchange with the second wireless network begins.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

when the suspension time period exceeds the time interval that results in the first wireless network dropping the RRC connection during the suspension time period, re-establishing another RRC connection with the first wireless network.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the first wireless network comprises a long term evolution (LTE) wireless network, and

the second wireless network comprises a CDMA2000 1× wireless network.

11. A method to manage connection with a user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a plurality of wireless networks, the method comprising:

by a radio access subsystem of a first wireless network:

when the UE is associated with the first wireless network through an established radio resource control (RRC) connection and simultaneously registered with a second wireless network:

receiving from the UE a radio resource suspension trigger that provides an indication to suspend allocation of radio resources to the UE without dropping the established RRC connection;

suspending allocation of radio resources to the UE during a suspension time period;

allocating radio resources to one or more other UEs during the suspension time period; and

when the suspension time period does not exceed a time interval that results in dropping the established RRC connection, resuming allocation of radio resources to the UE after receiving a signaling message from the UE through the established RRC connection.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the resource suspension trigger comprises a predefined combination of values for one or more of: a channel quality indicator, a precoding matrix indicator, or a rank indicator.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

by the radio access subsystem of the first wireless network:

re-establishing a new RRC connection between the UE and the first wireless network in response to receiving a request from the UE to re-establish another RRC connection.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the radio resource suspension trigger does not comprise an extended service request (ESR) message that requests releases of the RRC connection.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

by the radio access subsystem of the first wireless network:

when the suspension time period exceeds an inactivity timer expiration time interval, releasing the established RRC connection between the UE and the first wireless network.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the suspension time period comprises one or more paging cycles of the second wireless network.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein:

the first wireless network comprises a long term evolution (LTE) wireless network, and

the second wireless network comprises a CDMA2000 1× wireless network.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a mobile device, cause the mobile device to:

establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a first wireless network;

register the mobile device with a second wireless network;

send to the first wireless network a radio resource suspension trigger that provides an indication to the first wireless network to suspend allocation of radio resources to the mobile device;

tune one or more receivers of the mobile device to the second wireless network to listen for paging messages; and

when not receiving a page addressed to the mobile device during a suspension time period:

tune the one or more receivers of the mobile device back to the first wireless network; and

resume communication with the first wireless network.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein

the suspension time period does not exceed an RRC inactivity timer expiration time interval.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein execution of the instructions by the one or more processors of the mobile device further causes the mobile device to:

when not receiving the page addressed to the mobile device during the suspension time period, send to the first wireless network a signaling message that provides an indication to the first wireless network to resume communication with the mobile device.

Continuity (3)
Continuation 13416286 · Mar 9, 2012
Provisional Application 61478922 · Apr 25, 2011
Related Publication 20150023284A1 · Jan 22, 2015